New in the Biz!

Hello everyone. I've decided to start my own lawn service business this spring. Ive started with some basic advertising and am about to buy some more equipment. I have some but need more. Of course my biggest opportunity is getting 20 or 30 to start with. Im 52 years old and not only have experience in working with lawns, but some small buisness experience also. Any tips on how to get those first few yards would be greatly appreciated. I've printed off business cards sent out 100 flyers, created a Facebook page and am about to put an ad in the newspaper. I live in northeast ms so I need to act fast! Thanks for any replies.
Brad

Hello everyone. I've decided to start my own lawn service business this spring. Ive started with some basic advertising and am about to buy some more equipment. I have some but need more. Of course my biggest opportunity is getting 20 or 30 to start with. Im 52 years old and not only have experience in working with lawns, but some small buisness experience also. Any tips on how to get those first few yards would be greatly appreciated. I've printed off business cards sent out 100 flyers, created a Facebook page and am about to put an ad in the newspaper. I live in northeast ms so I need to act fast! Thanks for any replies.
Brad

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I also started my lawn business when I was 52. I'm 66 now and retired but when I started my local newspaper had a section called " Who Does It". It cost $30.00 for a month for three lines of ad and after that month I canceled the ad. I picked up 15 accounts and from then it was word of mouth. I built my business up to 95 customers at its height but as I got older I scaled back a bit because it was getting to much being solo.

I also started my lawn business when I was 52. I'm 66 now and retired but when I started my local newspaper had a section called " Who Does It". It cost $30.00 for a month for three lines of ad and after that month I canceled the ad. I picked up 15 accounts and from then it was word of mouth. I built my business up to 95 customers at its height but as I got older I scaled back a bit because it was getting to much being solo.

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Very interesting reply scagman! Any tips on a simple newspaper add? Also what type of clientele did you have?

When I first got started in lawn care back in 1992 I got a lot of work from handing out flyers under car wipers in parking lots at churches on Sunday and bingo nights during the week...not sure how that would work now days but always got a good response back in the 90's.. But currently I'm reading about paid advertising on facebook as I've heard it works great

This will be my 8th full year, I'm 55 now, I'm like scagman. My first couple yrs I did old fashioned new papers, lots of retired folks still love the paper.
Absolutely the best though was word of mouth. If you've lived there in MS for a while you probably know lots of folks. Go talk to everyone you know, let them know what your doing, talk to the small businesses in your area. Especially the one's that already know you. And yes garden center is a great place to leave some cards. Let them know you'll be buying any plants, mulch etc from them. Scratch each other back.
Good luck, I wish I would have started 20 years sooner.